Criminal Profile:

Bernard L. (Bernie) Madoff

Dan Milcic, Pd. 6

Early life

• Born April 29, 1938 in Queens, New York• Avid swimmer in high school, worked as a

lifeguard– Saved $5,000 for a “future investment”

• Education: University of Alabama, Hofstra University, Brooklyn Law School (dropped out)

• Married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Alpern

• Madoff and wife Ruth founded Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC.– Used $5,000 he saved from his lifeguarding job and money

from a side job installing sprinkler systems– Gathered huge pool of investors via word-of-mouth, many

of whom were famous• Ex. - Steven Spielberg, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick

– His company became famous for its reliable returns, often over 10 percent.

– 1980’s - handled up to 5 percent of NYSE trading– Madoff began hiring family members as his business grew.

Greatness from Small Beginnings

Other info.

• Served as NASDAQ chairman• Avid collector of vintage watches• Would not meet one-on-one with most investors• Incredible influence - SEC chairman acknowledged

occasionally going to Madoff for advice • Described as near-obsessive compulsive• “Appeared to believe in family, loyalty, honesty.”

• December 11th, 2008 – Madoff arrested after he revealed a branch of his firm to be a massive $50 billion Ponzi scheme* (an investment scam promising investors high returns at little risk)– Madoff transferred billions of dollars of his clients’

money to his own account; faked reports with consistent, high returns; and paid out clients’ money to each other when requested.

– Reported to federal authorities by his sons

Arrest

CrimesCrime Description

Securities fraud Misrepresent information that investors use to make decisions

Investment advisor fraud

Giving deceitful advice to investors

Mail fraud Using mails to defraud others of money and/or property

Wire fraud Similar to mail fraud, but done using electronic communication

Money laundering (x3)

Making a large amount of money obtained illegally look as if it was obtained legally

False statements Making an untrue statement

Perjury Telling a lie in court

False filings with the SEC

Filing deceitful paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which would have audited (inspected) Mr. Madoff’s business

Theft from an employee benefit plan

Stealing from worker’s social security, pension plans, etc.

**Mr. Madoff may have been performing illegal activity from as early as the 1970’s, but his 2008 arrest marked his first run-in with the law. Therefore, these listed are his “most recent” crimes.

**He pleaded guilty to and was charged with all eleven counts and on March 12, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

CRIM

ES

**Madoff was 71 years old at the time.

Why guilty?

• Madoff admitted to investigators that he “lost” $50 billion of his investors’ money.

• He pleaded guilty to all eleven counts brought against him.

• Admitted to his sons that a branch of his asset management firm was a Ponzi scheme.

Quotable **(all quotes by Madoff)**

• "It was a nightmare for me. I wish they caught me six years ago, eight years ago.“

• “[My wife] is angry at me. I mean, you know, I destroyed our family.”

• “How could I have done this? I was making a lot of money. I didn’t need the money. [Am I] a flawed character?”

• “I’m not the kind of person I’m being portrayed as.”

Nicknames

• Often called “Bernie”, rather than birth name; “Bernard”.

• No other known nickname(s)

Theory of Deviance• I feel that the theory that best explains Mr. Madoff’s deviant behavior is

the Anomie Theory because it focuses on the individual’s struggle between culturally-defined goals and the legitimate opportunities through which they can be achieved. From what I read, no one knows for sure why Mr. Madoff did what he did, but I believe that he simply wanted to build wealth and became obsessed with it. Mr. Madoff’s family background included a mother who worked in finance, and considering the fact that he attended three separate universities, saved up his money, and worked a side job, there is good reason to believe that he wanted to become the best that he could be and build his wealth legally. However, I believe that he turned to a lifestyle of deviance when the influence and power he obtained went to his head. I think that he began focusing more on attaining this wealth not only to meet his goal, but to prove to everyone that he could fool them for so long, as he did.

Theory of Deviance, Con’t.• Mr. Madoff wanted fame and power, but making a name for oneself on

Wall Street is a daunting task, to say the least. I feel that even before the obsession with money, (over $800 million net worth at one point), Mr. Madoff wanted to have a special sort of influence over others. That influence came in the form of gullible investors, some of who would “lose their life savings” because of Madoff. At first, he obtained this influence legally as head of his own business and later as NASDAQ chairman, but then became hungry for more, and turned to fabricating high returns through his asset management business to entice new customers. In this way, he met both his wealth-building and power-craving needs. These “needs”, I feel are what hatched Mr. Madoff’s ignorance to being caught and eventually lead to some of the startling quotes I included on the “quotable” slide. It took getting caught for Mr. Madoff to see the error in his ways, that he spent a bulk of the last forty years making a name for himself through crime and deviance. That is very unfortunate for a man with such high potential and otherwise fantastic credentials.

Cultural References

• Books– Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff– The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust– No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller– Bernie Madoff

• Documentary– Chasing Madoff

• Movie– **Upcoming movie starring Robert DeNiro as Madoff

• TV shows– American Greed: Bernie Madoff Behind Bars

Works Cited

• http://www.biography.com/people/bernard-madoff-466366#arrest&awesm=~oDa5czIOlbYyEx

• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25bernie.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

• Investopdeia.com• http://www.ibtimes.com/select-quotes-bernard-madoff-

magazine-interview-271615• http://theweek.com/article/index/203804/what-do-i-do-now-

7-brilliant-bernie-madoff-quotes• Google images